Jamie Raskin Urged Biden to Drop Out by Comparing Him to an Exhausted Pedro Martinez in the 2003 ALCS

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Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) penned a four-page letter to President Joe Biden earlier this month, urging him to end his reelection bid. In doing so, he cited one of the more painful moments in the history of the Boston Red Sox.

The New York Times obtained the letter – dated July 6 – and published it on Thursday. Raskin confirmed its authenticity.

Biden has faced an onslaught of pressure from Democratic lawmakers to drop out of the race following his terrible debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month. Interviews Biden has done since have not allayed concerns that he may be unable to defeat Trump and serve four more years.

“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics,” Raskin wrote . “Your situation is tricky because you are both our star pitcher and our manager. But in democracy, as you have shown us more than any prior president, you are not a manager acting all alone; you are the co-manager along with our great team and our great people.”

Toward the end of his correspondence, Raskin continued the baseball metaphor by leaving him with an anecdote about Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series:

I want to leave you with a final thought about baseball, the American game where even the finest pitchers have only around 110 pitches in them before their arms tire and begin to give out. In the eighth inning of the seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees, Pedro Martinez, one of the greatest pitchers in Red Sox history, began to tire badly after 118 pitches and he gave up three straight hits and a run from Derek Jeter. The Red Sox Manager, Grady Little, visited the mound and Martinez vigorously protested that he was fine and he could continue and give it his all despite all the statistics about what happens when pitchers play after throwing for so long. Little kept him in and the Yankees proceeded to tie the game at the next at-bat with a two-run single and then went on to win the game with an 11th inning home run by Aaron Boone.

The loss kept the Red Sox out of the World Series and meant they would not win it for an 85th consecutive year – or one fewer year than Biden would be at the end of a second term. Little was fired in the offseason and Boston managed to defeat the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS en route to a World Series title.

Raskin concluded, “There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring statistics.”